I had purchased a brushed ESC from Hobbyparts with a free shipping coupon code. What I received was an ESC that was obviously scraped off of whatever it was attached to.
The pictures show as received and after cleaning the gum residue off.
Did I miss the fine print in the store policy that says they may do this type of thing? Has anyone else had a similar experience?
In general I have had good dealings with Hobbypartz but this is going to make me think twice next time.

Looks like they either sold you a used or a refurbished product. Can you return it?

Pretty shady for anyone. Sorry to hear about that.

These online retailers are truly ignorant to think there isn't a public venue for the hobby that will hurt their buisness.

This happened to me this weekend at a local hobby shop.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1550788

Similar and also very upsetting.

I am a true believer in support local. Unfortunatly i recently went into my local hobby shop, asking for bearing's i brought in the 2 sizes i needed, But the shop owner copped a serious attitude, i was the only customer in there and he acted like he had zero time to help me out? So finally he found what i needed and i paid was on my way. about 2 weeks later i went in for some wire and some connectors told him exactly what it was for and again with the attitude. Well his shop is a wreck everything is all over and with his poor attitude i wont be going back it's a shame since it seem's as tho he is very knowledgable about the hobby. Just the lack of dedication! If he wants to run his business in the ground may as well not open the door's. This is Happy hobby in west allis,wi. Now S&N Trackside i went in to browse and they were wonderful clean shop ready to answer any question's and most helpful didnt try and push anything and stood there and explained many things to me!

Originally Posted by bsbauman

Looks like they either sold you a used or a refurbished product. Can you return it?

Since the ESC seems to function "OK" I am going to send them a link to this rant and will think long and hard before doing business with them again.

It truly is a shame that some LHS don't understand how critical customer service is.

I myself dont mind paying a little more knowing I can go back if something is a miss rather than shipping across the country.

I wish this forum had a heading "LHS experiences" then list each state to help give people a better idea of who their dealing with.

It's always better to learn from others mistakes when possible.

Of the numerous local hobby shops here in Atlanta I do get some quality support from HTUSA, but far and away the leader in customer support for locals around here is Atlanta Hobby. Cliff has proven to me time and time again that he puts his customers first and genuinely cares about the local Atlanta flyers. He will also beat any prices out there if you find a product cheaper elsewhere, if you are a member you will also get an additional 3% off and free shipping on all orders (with no minimum to buy, and no package to large-oversize boxes ship free as well).

Originally Posted by storm2313

I myself dont mind paying a little more knowing I can go back if something is a miss rather than shipping across the country.

Might just want to check it out nice and good before you leave. All the LHS here in town, the one I own included won't touch returns once you leave the store. I work with people on store credit, but not giving cash back 90% of the time. Some of the car brands (traxxas for example) are really good about returns, but for the most part do your piece to ensure your happy before you buy/leave...

I truly believe hobby shop owner "size you up" when you walk through the door.
The more you look like a big spender the better attention you receive
I have known a couple of millionaires that looked like popers... you just never know.
Unfortunately the closet hobby shop to me is 45 minutes away. I suffer from MS and it is very difficult to go anywhere most of the time.
I sent a link to Hobbypartz encouraging them to "weigh in" on the subject... we will see.

I am very interested in the response you receive, please keep us up to speed on your progress and I am sorry you have to deal with this... I would have felt the same as you and would want some sort of discount if they are selling me a used item.

Well I would have been happy with an exchange. I didn't want my money back just the item I paid for to be in the condition I paid for it to be in. The guy behind the counter opened the box to see if the manuals were there and that was all the inspection he did. I never thought if an issue came up I would be treated like that. How many do?

I hope the LHS owners see why so many people order online now. The hobby shop owner in Atlanta should rub his ways off on the others, cause in the end most towns only have 1-3 clubs supporting them.

1-2 bad word of mouths is all it takes to cost them thousands a month from club guys.

HobbyPartz, Nitroplanes, Xheli, Raidentech, NitroRCX... all the same company. Xheli has been doing this for years. I got my first RTF Helicopter from them with a blade strike dent in the boom.... I used to belong to the RC Discuss forums and read the CS forums daily. Many people have received used or damaged equipment that was sold as new.

So to answer your question, do they sell pulls... yes they do, and yes I've had a similar experience with this company.

Could be an employee theft issue, or a customer return that got sold again by mistake. I had a friend buy speakers at circuit city once and when he opened the new box, the speakers were used and blown. Someone did a switch and return, or an employee did so in the warehouse.

As said hobbypartz and nitro planes are the same. I have ordered a few things from nitro. I ordered a plug and play (rx ready) 450 heli from them. It arrived in a basic carboard box (probably the outter box used to protect the true inner box) with no proper packing and the included lipo was unsucered and flying around in transit in the box.

Also the heli was assembled as you would expect a PNP to be, but there was still a cut zip tie hanging where the rx mounts. It became obvious to me that this was probably a ready to fly heli that had the TX and RX removed (probably to fill a warranty issue with a RTF one) and was advertised as a PNP and then stuffed in any old box and shipped. I would guess your situation to be similar, it may have been installed in a RTF or RTR model and then removed and sold as a seperate item.

Not ranting (this was a couple yrs ago), just mentioning my experience and sorry to hear about yours and don't blame you for being upset. I had ordered another 2.4g heli from them around the same time and they sent me a FM heli. I had to pay out of my pocket to ship it back and get the right one, I included a letter to the management that they should at least give me a store credit to pay for the shipping back (it was in fact their mistake), they either didn't see it or ignored it and through a rant thread I started here they finally gave me a store credit probaly to shut me up.

So if you feel like you didn't get what you paid for fight them for it, but it took up my time and such so it may not be worth it. If as you say you tested it and it works maybe just keep it, as I did with the heli, it is probably new but was removed from something like I said.

Good luck

Brent

I have wondered if the products they sell are not, in fact, refurbished and/or returns from some other outlet. Very few items I had ordered from them have been packaged in sealed and labeled packs, most have arrived in ziploc bags with no documentation at all.
I have poured over all of the policy's I could find on the site. No where does it say there is a possibility of receiving such item (nor does it say you wont)
I think there should be some form of a statement that explains item shipped may be in less them the expected "new" condition. Without one I am left with a feeling of being mislead, if not deceived, in believing their product are 100% new and in a condition one would expect of such.
Don't get me wrong, I love shopping the "scratch n dent" sections, but I KNOW what I am buying is NOT 100% perfect.
Maybe we need trader ratings for hobby sellers.